Dock-pier construction



G. WRIGHT DOCK PIER CONSTRUCTION Jim. 22, 1924,

Filed Nov. 2,0, 1919 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Swue m-toz GEO/P615 Mfr/war @5111.115 abhor we G. WRIGHT DOCK PIER CONSTRUCTION Jan. 22, 1924, K1,481,404

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STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE WRIGHT, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

DOCK-PIER CONSTRUCTION.

Application filed November 20, 1919. Serial No. 339,276.

To all whom'it may concern:

Be it known that I. GEORGE WRIGHT, a citizen of the United States, and aresident of East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dock-Pier Drawings.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a pier constructed and arranged in accordancewith the present invention, showing in full lines the overheaddistributing system, and in dotted lines the subway with which the pieris furnished; and

Figure 2 is a cross section of the pier,

the section being taken as on the line 22 in Figure 1.

Description.

Piers of the character mentioned are usually constructed in the form oflong and relatively narrow buildings, having a number of ports orentrances, along the sides and across the outer or water end thereof,and but one entrance at the land end. As a result of this arrangement,the pier becomes excessively congested at certain times, and the passagebetween the stored freight on both sides of the pier is encroached uponto such an extent that occasionally room is not left for the passing ofvehicles entering and leaving the pier. Further, andunder the bestconditions, room is not provided so that a vehicle coming up from behindanother vehicle can passthe other vehicle with the result that thefollowing vehicle necessarily waits until the first vehicle is chargedor discharged of its load. The result of this lack of facility forhandling freight on the pier is that the pier becomes rapidly congested,so that freight is removed therefrom or delivered thereon very slowly.

It is the object of the present invention to overcome this difficulty byarranging and equipping the structure of the pier so that freight may betaken from a vehicle at the land entrance of the pier to be handledmechanically and manually, while distributing it on the pier.

To this end a subterranean tunnel 7 is.

formed. The tunnel 7 is constructed of very heavy concrete walls 8,which are preferably supported on a system of piles 9. The tunnel 7, asbest seen in Figure 1 of the drawings, extends lengthwise of the pier,and preferably at the land side thereof extends beyond the'pier so thatthe receiving end thereof is covered normally by doors 10. Acorresponding pair of doors 11 normally closes the delivery opening atthe outer or water end of the pier.

A system of tracks is provided in the tunnel 7, the tracks referred tobeing comprised by the rails 12, on which the wheels 13 of fiat cars 14run. At each end of the tracks the rails are arranged to form a 7switchback 15. By'this arrangement the cars on both sides of the tunnelmay be'run into the receiving station under the'doors 10 or on to thedelivery station under the doors '11 at the opposite ends of the tunnel,in one case to receive the load, and in the other case to be relievedtherefrom.

The loads deposited on the cars having the platforms 14 are raised by anoverhead traveling hoisting mechanism 16.- The hoisting mechanism 16 ispreferablypro- -'vided with an independent prime mover, and a winch 17,mounted thereon, upon which winch the cables 18 are wound. The mechanism16 is suspended from tracks two hoisting mechanisms, that at the forward end being designed to relieve the vehicles of their loads, and tolower the same into the tunnel for disposition' upon the flat cars 14 insaid tunnel. Thehoisting mechanism at the receiving end of the pier may,however, be employed for distributing the loads of the vehicles forstowage on the pier at the land end thereof, without sending the loadthrough the tunnel 7. Say, however, the load is deposited on the cars inthe tunnel and carried thereby to the delivery end of the tunnel, thedoors 11 being then open to permit the hoisting mechanism at that end ofthe pier to engage the load, or, if desired, the car itself can behoisted from the tunnel and while sus pended can be carried lengthwiseon the pier to be deposited on the floor thereof in a position suitablevfor the storage desired. Having de osited its load, the hoisl ingmechanism, which is carried to the outer end of the pier, returns toreceive a second or successive load.

For distributing the freight after the same has been deposited in thecenter of the pier by the hoisting mechanism, there is provided twolaterally extending cranes 21, the cranes 21 being supported on wheels22, the sides of said cranes providing a track having a movable hoistingmechanism 23. The hoisting mechanism 23, as seen best in Figure 2 of thedrawings, employ'scables 2 1, and is provided with a caboose 25, inwhich an engineer or operator rides. Any suitable means isemployed formoving the" cranes 21 lengthwise of the building on the tracks 26,which. are disposed substantially as shown in Figure 2 of the. drawings,the inner tracks being suspended from hanging brackets, 27, while theouter tracks are carried on brackets 28, supported by the funnelstructure of the pier.

hen a pier is constructedand arranged in accordance with the presentinvention, and as shownin the accompanying drawings, the congestionreferred to is avoided, and the distribution of the freight delivered byteams or from steamers is very much more expeditious than by the oldmethod. The freight may betaken on to the pier by delivering it into thereceiving end of the tunnel to be rapidly conveyed away therefrom by thecarsin the tunnel to the far end thereof, where the hoisting mechanism16 expeditiously relieves the car'of its load to carry the samelengthwise of the pier to deposit it in the station designed therefor.Immediately the freight is deposited by the hoisting mechanism 16, thesaid mechanism returns to the delivery end of thetunneI 7, and frees thesucceeding cars-of their load, each time delivering the load to thepoint best suited therefor, for stowage convenient for rehandlingintrans-shipment.

It will be understood that the. hoisting mechanism 16 passing as it doesoverhead, canconvey freight above obstacles which a vehicle could notpass. As soon as the freight is deposited by the hoisting mechanism 16,the cranes 21-. are set in: motion to the end that the hoistingmechanism 23 IHOUDtGCltlli-ZIOOD' will run in to the center of thebuilding adjacent the load which has been deposited to engage the samefor piling or packing the freight away from the center and at theoutcrwalls of the pier, as is most desired.

Again it will berealized that the overhead system formed by the cranes21 and hoistin mechanism 23 permit the handling of freight in the mannerdifficult, if not impossible, to manual labor, both because of theheight of the pile which may be formed by the said cranes, and hoistingmechanisms, and by the fact that they can lift any particular load fordeposit over formerly placed articles which might otherwise prove anobstruction.

When it is desired the tunnel 7 may be utilized as storage space byleaving the goods'on the cars therein. In this manner it will beunderstood that the increased capacity o-f-the pier would offset theprobable increase in the cost of construction thereof, and particularlyof the tunnel feature herein described.

Claims.

1. A structure comprising a building, a tunnel extending longitudinallybeneath the building, and having one end extending beyond the buildingand having its inner and outer ends provided with hatchways. conveyormeans for receiving material through the outer hatchway and moving thesame longitudinally in said tunnel, and overhead carrier means in thebuilding for extracting material from said conveyor means through theinner hatchway and distributing it in the building.

2. A structure comprising a building, a tunnel extendinglongitudinallybeneath the building and having one end opening throughthe floor of the building and its other end opening exteriorly of thebuilding, conveyor means for receiving material at the outer'end of saidtunnel and conveying'the same longitudinally of the tunnel, and overheadcarrier means in saidbuilding for removing material from the tunnelthrough the opening in the inner end por tion thereof and distributingthe same in the building.

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